Michael-Patrick Harrington's Blog, page 58
July 13, 2015
Harper Lee
Click HERE to read an interesting NY Times article on the invisible hand that guided Harper Lee when she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird.
July 7, 2015
Congratulations!
Congratulations to the ten winners of the Goodreads Giveaway for my new book The Distant Sound of Boiling Tea!
July 5, 2015
The 25 Best Gangster Films of the Modern Era
The Godfather Part II (1974)
Goodfellas (1990)
Mean Streets (1973)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Departed (2006)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Donnie Brasco (1997)
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Casino (1995)
A Bronx Tale (1993)
Léon: The Professional (1994)
Sexy Beast (2000)
A History of Violence (2005)
Eastern Promises (2007)
The Road to Perdition (2002)
Scarface (1983)
The Untouchables (1987)
Un Prophète {A Prophet} (2009)
Gangs of New York (2002)
Heat (1995)
American Gangster (2007)
Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
June 30, 2015
O Happy Day
Friday’s Supreme Court decision in favor of same sex marriage is the culmination of so many people fighting to be recognized, struggling to have the same rights as everyone else, while hate groups and the Christian Right bit at their heels and compared them to animals. Yesterday, I was with two of my favorite people on the planet, two little boys named Søren and Silas (sons of Margaux Kent and her husband Walter). We were playing with action figures and looking for Chewbacca’s head when Margaux brought her laptop into the room. To listen to our President and watch the people on the steps on the Supreme Court celebrating while two little people positioned the Hulk and Iron Man, I realized that there is a possibility that we have just made this planet better for the next generation and that superheroes come in all shapes and sizes.
June 28, 2015
Top Ten Novels of the Modernist Period
Top Ten Novels of the Modernist Period
(roughly 1900-1940—in chronological order)
1) Howard’s End by E.M. Forester (1910)
2) My Ánotonia by Willa Cather (1918)
3) The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (1920)
4) Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)
5) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
6) Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925)
7) The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)
8) Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence (1928)
9) As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner (1930)
10) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)
Note: these are all novels written in the English language—foreign languages may come later
Note #2: this list just includes novels—another list may be coming
Note#3: no more than one work by an author
June 1, 2015
My new book, The Distant Sound of Boiling Tea, has just been released!
My new book, The Distant Sound of Boiling Tea, is available NOW!
(Description is below. Published by Silk Raven Press)
Right now, the book is only $10 on this web site! (Description is below.)
It’s also available for the Kindle (which you can order from this site).
You can also find the book and the Kindle version on Amazon as well.
Barnes and Noble’s web site carries the book too.
But at the moment, the book is cheaper on this web site!
THE DISTANT SOUND OF BOILING TEA
Ever notice how the whistle of a boiling tea kettle sounds like a scream?
A screenplay without a film, The Distant Sound of Boiling Tea is the story of two emotionally adrift women and the preyed upon young boy between them.
Ruth St. Clair struggles with indifference as a wife and mother. Her husband Phil is a violent alcoholic, but instead of divorcing him, she pursues a seminarian who is nearing his ordination. Ruth feels herself going through the motions in raising her fifteen-year-old son Danny, yet she is surprised to discover that he has become a stranger.
Lisa Ann Kavanagh is truly lost. A high school teacher newly separated from her husband, a man twenty years her senior, Lisa Ann does what she thinks is expected of her in an attempt to find a foothold, but nothing seems right until she falls for one of her students: Danny St. Clair.
What transpires sends the two women hurtling towards each other. Neither makes much of Phil’s growing obsession for the teacher. As light is shown into the darkest corners, Danny’s victimhood is called into question, and Phil, who believes Lisa Ann chose his son over him, begins to plot his revenge through a haze of whisky fumes and stripper glitter.
May 31, 2015
This Week’s Turntable…
Get Behind Me Satan by White Stripes (2005)
Little Neon Limelight by Houndmouth (2015)
Live Seeds by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (1993)
Once Upon a Time: The Singles by Siouxsie & the Banshees {compilation} (1981)
Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy by the Who (1971)
Gish by Smashing Pumpkins (1991)
Some Girls: Deluxe Edition by the Rolling Stones (2 CDs; original release 1978; deluxe edition 2011)
Jackson C. Frank by Jackson C. Frank (1965)
Blue Sky on Mars by Mattew Sweet (1997)
What are you listening to?
Rolling Stones, “Respectable”
Speedy Ortiz, “Raising the Skate”
May 24, 2015
This Week’s Turntable…
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit by Courtney Barnett (2015)
Down to Believing by Allison Moorer (2015)
Live at the Regal by B.B. King (1971)
The Waterfall by My Morning Jacket (2015)
Sprinter by Torres (2015)
Scream by Chris Cornell (2009)
Give a Monkey a Brainand He’ll Swear He’s the Center of the Universe by Fishbone (1993)
Neko Case & Her Boyfriends by Neko Case & Her Boyfriends (1997)
Youthquake by Dead or Alive (1985)
What are you listening to?
Allison Moorer, “Down to Believing promo”
Dead or Alive, “Spine Me Rounf (Like a Record)
May 19, 2015
The End of the Sweater Girl Tour!
Thank you to everyone who helped me during the Sweater Girl Book Tour, especially my booking agent, Kathie Woods Harrington, and my personal assistant/road manager, Kathie Cronk. Thank you to everyone who came to a signing or reading. A good time was had by all…and we’ll see everyone soon!
Harleysville Books, Harleysville, PA (9-13-14)
Doylestown Bookshop, Doylestown, PA (9-27-14)
Ambler Main Street Oktoberfest, Ambler, PA (10-4-14)
Mt. Airy Read & Eat, Philadelphia, PA (12-11-14)
Farley’s Bookshop, New Hope, PA (4-11-15)
Big Blue Marble Books, Philadelphia, PA (5-16-15)
Teh end of of the Sweater Girl Tour!
Thank you to everyone who helped me during the Sweater Girl Book Tour, especially my booking agent, Kathie Woods Harrington, and my personal assistant/road manager, Kathie Cronk. Thank you to everyone who came to a signing or reading. A good time was had by all…and we’ll see everyone soon!
Harleysville Books, Harleysville, PA (9-13-14)
Doylestown Bookshop, Doylestown, PA (9-27-14)
Ambler Main Street Oktoberfest, Ambler, PA (10-4-14)
Mt. Airy Read & Eat, Philadelphia, PA (12-11-14)
Farley’s Bookshop, New Hope, PA (4-11-15)
Big Blue Marble Books, Philadelphia, PA (5-16-15)
